178 On the Culture of the Guernsey Lily, #c. 



their leaves, or in a stove, or too far from the light in a green 

 house, where they have grown weakly. It is at the time 

 when the leaves are growing, that a very free admission of 

 air is most necessary, and unless their growth be promoted 

 early in the autumn, this cannot be easily given with a suffi- 

 ciently high temperature. 



By compelling the Gladioli and Ixias, and some of the 

 Oxalises, to delay their shoot (which would naturally be made 

 in the autumn) till the spring, their habit is inverted, and they 

 are accommodated to our climate out of doors ; but I have 

 not yet been able to succeed in so inverting the habits of the 

 Guernsey Lily, though I still suspect that it might be done, 

 by placing the bulbs at a considerable depth in a dry sunny 

 bank of loam. This might be tried by plunging the pots, 

 when the bulbs were dry, a foot deep in sand, out of doors, in 

 such a situation j covering the bed with saw-dust, to exclude 

 the frost: but I fear, with this treatment, the flower- buds 

 would be apt to perish in the winter. 



I do not think the cultivation of these bulbs upon a large 

 scale, as it is practised in Guernsey, will answer in Great 

 Britain, unless, perhaps, in the south-west of England, on 

 account of the expense attending the protection of the bulbs 

 from frost; they will probably be obtained from Guernsey at 

 a lower price, than the London nurserymen could ever raise 

 them. A frame glazed with oiled paper would probably be the 

 best substitute for glass, and might be a sufficient protection, 

 with the super-addition of mats in very severe weather : the 

 pots, in that case, should be plunged in saw-dust, to preserve 

 them from accidental drought, and the water, especially in 

 still and cloudy weather, should not be given with a rose, 

 which would wet the necks of the bulbs. They should be 



